April 30, 2008

Pump-Pandering Politicians: It’s great to see that so many news sources and websites are putting a penetrating spotlight on the proposals by the presidential candidates, as well as other federal and state politicians (like Messrs. Bruno and Tedisco in New York), to remove the gas tax over the summer. A Newsday editorial summed it up: “A proposal for such tiny, temporary, iffy savings is a political gimmick, not meaningful relief.” (“No such thing as a free tank: No gas tax for the summer is a bad idea“, April 30, 2008). For more analysis, see:

“Dumb as We Wanna Be” by Thomas L. Friedman (New York Times, April 30, 2008), which opines, “It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. . . This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.”

And, listen to analysis on the Gas Tax Holiday from the PBS NewsHour — (April 30, 2008), or read the transcript.

“Democrats Divided Over Gas Tax Break” by John Broder, The New York Times (29 Apr 2008), which has a description of the presidential candidates’ current and prior positions on gas taxes, and points out (emphasis added):

“The highway trust fund that the gas tax finances provides money to states and local governments to pay for road and bridge construction, repair and maintenance. Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton propose to suspend the tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the peak driving season, which would lower tax receipts by roughly $9 billion and potentially cost 300,000 highway construction jobs, according to state highway officials.”

update (May 1, 2008): Today’s NYT editorial “The Gas-Guzzler Gambit” also uses the word pander and explains why “it is an expensive and environmentally unsound policy that would do nothing to help American drivers.”

The federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon, about 5% of the average price today. Savvy f/k/a readers probably didn’t have to read an article to wonder why we would expect the oil companies to automatically pass on the savings from a gas tax hiatus. In addition, if you’ve been reading about the plight of many independent gas stations, you might also expect the stations to try to pocket some of the tax savings for themselves. See, e.g., “Stations hope you fill up with more than gas: Fuel is loss leader for many; they make money in convenience stores,” (msnbc.com, April 1, 2008)

“Clinton’s support for a federal gas-tax holiday over the summer was symbolic of a poll-driven candidacy proposing something ‘politically expedient to give a quick pander to Hoosier voters,’ in contrast to what he called the ‘principled’ campaign Obama has run.”

We think the gas-tax-holiday issue can tell us a lot about our so-called leaders. Who is willing to tell us the truth? Who treats voters like adults? Who is worried about the long-run and not just the next election? It also tells us a lot about the voting public: Who will demand a simplistic “solution” even if it might in fact be counter-productive, just to get a few extra bucks in their pocket now.

“Unfortunately, their [Senators Clinton and McCain] demagoguery is growing into a real problem, setting off a chain reaction of “me too” proposals across the country to suspend state gasoline taxes, which tend to be much larger than the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal levy. If the pandering spreads, it would go a long way in setting the nation’s energy strategy in precisely the wrong direction.”

“These ideas share a common purpose: appearing to be doing something to ease hard-pressed voters’ pain at the pump. Not only are they costly, but they will not do that. Suspending the federal tax would cost $9 billion. In New York, the suspension would blow a $500 million hole in state finances. Consumers in some states could benefit from lower state gas taxes because wholesalers could import gas from other states. Still, with refineries producing almost at full capacity, the tax break would prompt a jump in demand that would push up prices.”

If you’ve read and considered all of the above, you surely deserve a treat. Here are more poems from the newest issue of Acorn (No. 20, Spring 2008) — which, among its 100+ poems, contains contemporary haiku by a number of our f/k/aHonored Guest Poets: